Aneurin Bevan was born into an area of Wales where two-thirds of the male population worked underground in the mines. Throughout his career he championed the cause of the working classes and his service as Minister for Health gave the British universal healthcare through the National Health Service.

P. T. Barnum is remembered as the circus showman and promoter of “The Greatest Show on Earth”, but he did not start his circus venture until he was 60. In his earlier career he took on many roles, becoming a newspaper publisher, an exhibitor of curiosities, a concert promoter and a theatre owner.

For Charles Goodyear, the inventor of vulcanized rubber, life was always a struggle. But even frequent incarceration in debtors’ prisons did not stop him achieving his goal of perfecting the rubber manufacturing process. Unfortunately, he never benefited financially from his hard work.

As one half of the comedy duo Laurel and Hardy, Stan Laurel starred in over a hundred comedy shorts and feature films. But he also had a successful acting and writing career before his partnership with Oliver Hardy.

Harriet Beecher Stowe was born into an era in which women were assigned an inferior role. But through her writing, and her most famous work, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Stowe was influential in the abolitionist cause.

Billy Butlin was the ultimate showman. His dream of providing affordable holiday entertainment for the British public saw his business grow from a single fairground stall to a national holiday camp and hotel empire.